February 6, 2025
A half-baked cop-out from the Ford government over sending kids back to school
Ontario politicians need to ask themselves if their non-decision is based on real, quantifiable risk to children or if it’s because they’re afraid they will be blamed if something goes wrong.
Ontario politicians need to ask themselves if their non-decision is based on real, quantifiable risk to children or if it’s because they’re afraid they will be blamed if something goes wrong.

From the minute Ontario ordered its schools closed back in March, it was apparent that reopening them would be one of the most difficult but necessary decisions provincial politicians would have to make. That is, until they found a way to get themselves off the hook.

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce should have told school boards that he expects schools to be open full-time starting in September, unless there is a strong local case to be made for blending part-time schooling with online learning. Instead, the minister said last week that either of those choices could work, and even threw in the possibility of completely-online schooling. He said he would leave it to each school board to decide what’s best for their region.

It’s a cop-out that leaves parents, teachers and school boards scrambling to figure out what to do.

As a result of Lecce’s indecision, the vital choice about school reopening will not be made by the elected provincial politicians who have been running the pandemic show, nor by elected trustees. The school opening decisions will be made by school administrators, because the matter is considered operational.

School bureaucrats might be very capable in their regular jobs, but this is a decision far beyond their usual powers. What bureaucrat is going to undertake the perceived risk of reopening schools full-time when the education minister won’t?

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See Also:

(1) Two charged, two sought after shots fired into 401

(2) Ontario to fully fund nursing homes despite lower occupancies